In Patagonia Summary :: essays research papers

In Patagonia is one of the more interesting take holds that Ive read lately. Its the only book that I know of that crosses theives with archaeology. It is mainly a collection of Bruce Chatwins logs and descriptions of his travels in the second American frontier in the late 70s and early 80s (during the Cold War), modify also with short stories and vignettes. Some of them are true, though some combine the facts with fiction. Chatwin leaves these stories hanging and ties most of them back together in the end.      Chatwin discriminates of the lives of the people in Patagonia with much detail. He goes into much detail describing the poor Welsh, Scottish, English, and Italian farmers. Since farmers string up most of Patagonias workforce, Chatwin stays with quite a few them and learns close to the culture, history, and heritage of Patagonia. Many of the generous people he lodges with were outcasts or exiled from their profess country and told him the fascinat ing stories of their own lives and how they came to be in Patagonia. They also tell the riveting stories of the rich Patagonian borderland, where theives and criminals run wild. One such pair of criminals was dike Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They committed all sorts of crimes including larceny and murder (though Butch Cassidy never killed a man until late in his crooked career). After committing many crimes in Utah, they travelled down to South America to avoid the law.     In Patagonia also depicts the captivating history of the Archaeological findings and the many discoveries that have been made in parts of South America. The book starts off with a remenisence of Chatwin playing with his grandmothers " thunder lizard skin". This is what sparked his desire to search the South Americas. The English sailor Charley Milward had ensnare it originally. Then he reported it to a major archaeologist at that time by the name of Florentino Ameghino. In the end, the skin turns out to non be the skin of a brontosaurus, but rather a Mylodon.